Geometric frustration in polygons of polariton condensates creating vortices of varying topological charge
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Vorticity is a key ingredient to a broad variety of fluid phenomena, and its quantised version is considered to be the hallmark of superfluidity. Circulating flows that correspond to vortices of a large topological charge, termed giant vortices, are notoriously difficult to realise and even when externally imprinted, they are unstable, breaking into many vortices of a single charge. In spite of many theoretical proposals on the formation and stabilisation of giant vortices in ultra-cold atomic Bose-Einstein condensates and other superfluid systems, their experimental realisation remains elusive. Polariton condensates stand out from other superfluid systems due to their particularly strong interparticle interactions combined with their non-equilibrium nature, and as such provide an alternative testbed for the study of vortices. Here, we non-resonantly excite an odd number of polariton condensates at the vertices of a regular polygon and we observe the formation of a stable discrete vortex state with a large topological charge as a consequence of antibonding frustration between nearest neighbouring condensates.
Source: Nature Communications
Authors: Tamsin Cookson, Kirill Kalinin, Helgi Sigurdsson, Julian D. Töpfer, Sergey Alyatkin, Matteo Silva, Wolfgang Langbein, Natalia G. Berloff, Pavlos G. Lagoudakis
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,560
OpenAlex ID: W3126477754